Register for the 2016 Accessibility Summit Virtual Conference

Register for the 2016 Accessibility Summit Virtual Conference

Join other campus web professionals and aficionados for the 2016 Accessibility Summit, a virtual, live two-day online conference. We will participate from Nott Hall, Room 151 on September 6 and 7 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM each day. Registration is needed to reserve your seat and to access session recordings.

Event Agenda

September 6:

9 AM: PM-Led Accessibility

Robert Jolly, An accessibility-focused Project Manager

The Project Manager (PM) is responsible for ensuring all aspects of projects run smoothly, on-time, and meet numerous requirements. Often, accessibility is a key project requirement that is overlooked or misunderstood. PMs can be the champions for accessibility their teams need. In this session, Jolly will present a framework using real-world experiences to shepherd even the most stubborn team members into practicing their craft with accessibility in mind.

What are the best practices for reporting accessibility problems and remediation solutions to designers and developers? What features can you include so they love your accessibility report? This session will focus on accessibility reporting on WCAG 2.0 Level AA requirements using Apple’s iWork Suite’s Numbers app. For a newbie to Accessibility, including screenshots of the accessibility violation is much easier than including a code snippet or trying to explain the intricacies of the screen reader behavior when the problem occurs. We’ll discuss common problems and best practices for collaborating with multiple testers on one accessibility report.

11 AM: Accessible Data Visualization with SVG

Doug Schepers, W3C Developer Relations Lead

Data visualization is an efficient way of conveying information, but risks accessibility problems if not done right. This talk will cover well-known challenges and pitfalls for accessible information graphics, and describe techniques to overcome them, focusing on Web solutions using SVG, HTML, ARIA, and the Web Audio API. It will also describe some of the new accessibility features in the upcoming SVG2 specification, and the work of the SVG Accessibility Task Force.

12 PM – 1 PM: Lunch break

1 PM: Accessibility and Performance

Marcy Sutton, Senior Front-End Engineer at Deque Systems

How do slow performing JavaScript applications impact user experience for people with disabilities? Are there certain aspects of the web rendering process that create barriers when you’re relying on a screen reader? By studying the limitations of browsers with assistive technologies and establishing developer best practices, we can we make faster, more accessible experiences for our users. We’ll frame Web Performance with an Accessibility lens, looking at progressive enhancement in detail with server- and client-rendered apps built with Angular 2, React or Ember FastBoot; always remembering our friend, static HTML.

2 PM: Building In Accessibility from the Ground Up

Kevin Ball, Engineering Lead at ZURB

Making your website accessible is quickly moving from being a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’, but many web designers and developers still don’t know how to build an accessible website. The Foundation web framework was rebuilt in version 6 to build in accessibility from the ground up. With every component accessible by default, built-in extensible keyboard management utilities, and copious best practice examples, Foundation takes accessibility and makes it “accessible” to web professionals.

3 PM: Buddhism and the Art of Accessibility

Matt May, Accessibility Evangelist at Adobe

Why do we do what we do? How can we do better at understanding the problems we face, and communicating it to others? Buddhist thought has brought us thousands of parables regarding human nature, including compassion, knowledge, patience, diligence and tolerance: all critical elements to working in accessibility. Matt May, a long-time accessibility evangelist–and newly-ordained Buddhist minister–will show (in a theoretical, non-evangelistic way) how these messages can help us explain some of the hardest problems we face.

September 7:

9 AM: Keyboard Accessibility

Jared Smith, Accessibility Trainer for WebAIM

The prevalence and significance of keyboard accessibility issues is on the rise. Most keyboard accessibility issues are avoidable with knowledge of this subject and some basic testing. This session will provide details on implementing and evaluating keyboard accessibility, including insight into how ARIA and modern web applications can affect accessibility for keyboard and screen reader users.

10 AM Low Vision & Accessibility

Glenda Sims, Senior Accessibility Consultant at Deque

Did you know that 86% of people with visual impairments have low vision? While WCAG 2.0 does have a few success criteria related to low vision, many important barriers for this disability are not addressed. Luckily, hope is on the horizon. The Low Vision Task Force (LVTF) at the W3C has been identifying gaps and defining user needs. The LVTF will soon propose new success criteria for the next version of WCAG. In this session, Glenda Sims will help you understand the needs of low vision users and the universal design principles we can use today to make the web more readable for all people.

11 AM: Accessibility Resource Roundup

Sharron Rush, Executive Director of Knowbility

In this session led by Knowbility’s Sharron Rush, we share new resources from W3C’s Education and Outreach Working Group as well as crowdsource the intelligence of the attendees like yourself to find the web and mobile accessibility tools we love and which ones we don’t. After the session, we share the resource list with everyone so as to make our sites, apps, and blogs more accessible.

12 PM- 1 PM: Lunch break

1 PM: Accessibility in the Fifth Dimension

Elle Waters, Web Accessibility Evangelist at Simply Accessible

Buckle up and fly with me, my intrepid fellow travelers! We are going on an exciting adventure as we navigate the celestial bodies of design and the multi-universe of user experience. Together, we’ll explore the first, second, third, fourth, and yes, even the fifth dimension of accessibility. Then we will learn about why these different perspectives are essential to how you think about inclusive design, and how far we have yet to go on this journey. Look out–we’re gonna do science on your digital content!

2 PM: Accessible WordPress Content

Joseph O’Connor, Accessibility Consultant and WordPress Contributor

During this hands-on class you will log in to your WordPress site as an administrator and be guided through the process of creating accessible content. You will learn: What a skip-link does, why it’s needed, and how to easily add one to your WordPress theme using a plugin. Difference between captions, alternative text, and descriptions in the WordPress Add Media process. How to add images with descriptive alt attributes using the Add New Media and Media Library admin screens. Determine which heading levels pre-exist in your theme and the proper use of heading levels.

3 PM: Digital Accessibility Legal Update

Lainey Feingold, Lawyer

What does the law say about web and mobile accessibility? We still do not have web regulations in the U.S. for private companies or for state and local governments, but the U.S. Department of Justice has settled a significant number of cases requiring web and mobile accessibility for people with disabilities. Other federal agencies are doing important web work, too. In this session, we will: Explore those settlements and look at what courts are saying about the legal right to access digital content. Speculate about the future of federal regulations and give a shout out to companies who have voluntarily engaged in Structured Negotiation with the disability community without lawsuits to improve the usability of their digital content. Consider the recent spate of demand letters and lawsuits about web access that some on social media are calling accessibility trolls. Touch briefly on what’s happening in digital accessibility law just over the border and around the world.